Yukon father who claimed God approved of his incest sentenced to eight years in prison

Yukon father who claimed God approved of his incest sentenced to eight years in prison

WHITEHORSE — A Yukon father who claimed God approved of him taking his teenaged daughter as his wife and then tormenting his family with years of physical, sexual and psychological abuse has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

The 45-year-old man was sentenced Thursday in Yukon territorial court after having pleaded guilty to a string of charges, including incest and forcible confinement.

The man’s name is banned from publication to protect the identity of his daughters and wife.

In 2007, the man moved his wife and three daughters to a remote home located 150 kilometres from the nearest community. He said the move was an attempt to get them away from negative influences in cities such as Whitehorse.

His children, now 19, 17 and 13 years old, were home-schooled using a limited curriculum focused primarily on their father’s “long-standing fundamentalist Christian beliefs,” Judge John Faulkner said.

The judge described the man’s form of discipline ass “draconian,” allowing him to have a “remarkable degree of control” over the women and girls in the home.

They were forced to keep journals about religion, and then have those journals reviewed and corrected.

Punishment for not following the father’s strict and sometimes bizarre rules included being sent to a tent outside the home, with limited food and heat, sometimes for weeks at a time, the court heard.

Not long after moving into the bush, the man announced that God had approved of him taking his eldest daughter, then 15, as his new wife.

In 2009, he took his daughter on a honeymoon and told his family that “angels” had again approved of the relationship.

The eldest daughter was subjected to barbaric physical abuse. It including once being handcuffed to a tree in nothing but shorts and a T-shirt at the height of mosquito season because of her “lustful thoughts.”

She was also forced to walk the 150 kilometres from the family acreage into the closest community. As well, she was once hit with a board so hard she believed her wrist had been broken.

Unlike most cases of incest, where the sexual abuse is a “dirty family secret,” the man did not try and hide his relationship with his eldest daughter.

He repeatedly told his younger children about sex with their sister until they came to accept it as normal, Faulkner said.

The man took hundreds of pornographic images, which he later described to the RCMP as images from a loving relationship, the judge said.

The judge noted the man was able to use “tyranny, psychological abuse and religious rubbish” to keep anyone in the family from revealing the abuse.

In 2010, he banished his wife from the property, telling his children that she was “lustful and prideful,” the judge said.

It was then that she was able to go to the authorities.

The offender has been in custody ever since.

One of the most disturbing facts, the judge noted, is that to this day, the man continues to claim his daughter was a consensual loving partner in the relationship.

Faulkner said it is “difficult to imagine a more egregious breach of trust” between a father and his children, adding “parents should be their children’s beacon of safety.”

While in custody, the man has violated a court order not to have contact with his family members multiple times by sending letters to others asking them to tell the children he misses them.

The family no longer lives in the territory, the court heard.

With credit for time served, the man has 5-1/2 years left on his sentence.

He will be added to the sex offender registry and must comply with conditions for 20 years after he is released.

He is also banned from having any contact with his children, wife or their extended family.

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